Read The Reluctant Bride (Montana Born Brides) for Free Online Page B

around them, but he knew why he was here. Why he’d been so angry for so long. Because when he held Risa in his arms, the world dropped away.
    No longer did he feel those heavy weights on his shoulders of making sure his team were all okay, and that his father didn ’t sink into that lonely sadness that had haunted the old man since Monty’s mom had gone. Nothing seemed to exist except him and Risa.
    He needed her. No matter that he really didn’t want to. After she’d run away, he knew he couldn’t trust her to stay. That he was going to have to keep his guard up. But what he really wanted, what he needed, was to be in her arms and let that feeling of coming home be real.

    Risa couldn ’t breathe and didn’t want to think. Faking love wasn’t something she was prepared to do. This was a new wrinkle and one she hadn’t anticipated. She liked Monty—a lot. And she cared for him. Hell, that was why she’d left…so she didn’t hurt him. And maybe that was why she’d run when Monty was away. It had been all tied up in him not being at her side, the danger of his job and her parents’ dying. It had overwhelmed her.
    But when he held her, it was easy to believe that none of that mattered anymore. That nothing except Monty and this night were important. She’d said yes to him the last time she’d felt this way. And that scared her. Legit, knees shaking, knot-in-the-pit-of-her-stomach fear. The kind of thing she couldn’t outrun in her convertible, or even by leaving Montana. It was Monty. It was how he made her feel things she’d never thought she would and feared she never would again.
    And he wanted to talk about love.
    Love.
    The band stopped playing and everyone around them applauded politely. She pulled away and stared into his steely grey-green eyes for as long as she could before she broke, turned and escaped.
    He made her run.
    There were no two ways about it. She didn’t want to be the ball of aching nerves that Monty brought out in her. She couldn’t let herself depend on him. Not Monty, who so easily could be taken away from her.
    Jane took to the stage to introduce the couples who were participating in the Wedding Giveaway.
    “I see you met Lane’s Marine buddy,” Annie Prudhomme said, coming up to her and handing her a drink.
    Risa took a sip of the Manhattan. Annie looked sophisticated and happy, but then moving back home and finding that she’d been running away from the wrong thing had been just what she needed. She didn’t really know Annie very well. But both Annie and Annie’s future sister-in-law, Sienna Scott, had been very nice to her. They had invited her along to do things and made her feel like she was a part of the community, and not just the business one.
    “ He’s my fiancé,” Risa said.
    “ Uh, what? Why didn’t you mention that?” Annie asked as she took a sip of her drink.
    She shook her head. “I didn’t know when he’d be coming to town.”
    “ Hell, girl, you should have said. Carson and Lane have been working nonstop to get the barn ready for him. Do you like it?”
    Oh, great. Now she had to lie about something that she had no idea about.
    “ She hasn’t seen it yet, Annie,” Monty said, coming up behind her. He dropped his arm casually around her shoulder and took the cocktail glass from her hand, draining it in one swallow.
    “ Dancing is thirsty work.”
    “ That it is. I’m hoping to convince Carson to join me on the dance floor, but so far, he’s managed to avoid it,” Annie said. “But I’ve asked the band to play a song that I know will get him out of his seat.”
    Sienna drifted over, looking very frail but still lovely. Her marriage was on the rocks, something that she had mentioned only after she’d had a few too many glasses of wine at last week’s book club.
    “ Good luck with that, Annie. Scott men don’t do anything they don’t want to,” Sienna said. “You look pretty tonight, Risa.”
    “ Thank you,” Risa said. “Is that